Fishing nations at the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) have once again failed to adopt scientific advice and best practices to safeguard several species of oceanic sharks.
The number of co-sponsors in an ongoing effort to strengthen the ICCAT ban on “finning” (slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the body at sea) more than doubled to an unprecedented 30 of 50 Parties, yet was quashed by Japan with support from Korea, and China.
Japan also led the fight to kill EU proposals aimed at protecting common threshers and limiting catch of makos, while its attempt to raise proposed blue shark catch levels prevented consensus on that measure. The only shark measure agreed was a compromise between Canada and the EU aimed at conserving porbeagle sharks.
